Takeaway alcohol shops linked to teen drinking

Updated
November 13, 2013 08:58:00

Australian researchers have found a strong link between the number of takeaway alcohol shops in a community, and the rates of underage drinking. They say the federal and state governments should consider placing a cap on the number of bottleshops in Australia.

TONY EASTLEY: Australian researchers say they've found a clear link between the level of underage drinking and the number of takeaway alcohol shops nearby.

A study of more than 10,000 Victorian adolescents has found that 12 to 14-year-olds and teenagers from rural areas were most at risk. More worryingly, 85 per cent of these children reported that an adult had bought the alcohol for them.

AM's Lucy Carter:

LUCY CARTER: The Australian team of researchers already knew that many of the nation's teens were underage drinkers, consuming alcohol in disturbingly large quantities.

What they wanted to find out was the impact on children of having a lot of bottle shops in their local area.

Deakin University's professor John Toumbourou says after speaking with 10,000 teenagers, the results were clear.

JOHN TOUMBOUROU: People will be surprised to know that there is a significant relationship between what we describe as the density of alcohol outlets, that's the number of outlets per population, and the age at which young people start drinking alcohol.

In the early secondary school years we found that young people were more likely to drink alcohol if they're living in areas where there are a number of alcohol outlets nearby.

LUCY CARTER: When we talk about early secondary school, how young are these children?

JOHN TOUMBOUROU: It's having a particular effect on children who are between 12 and 14-years-old.

LUCY CARTER: Lead author, Dr Bosco Rowland from Deakin University, says the children reported getting their alcohol in several different ways,

BOSCO ROWLAND: Eighty-five per cent of the kids are reporting that an adult provided them with alcohol and then we've got about 9 per cent are saying they bought it from a retail outlet. So both of those figures are concerning.

We've got a culture in Australia which, you know, which seems to think that, you know, we introduce kids to alcohol, we allow kids to take alcohol to parties because we think that's a way of monitoring it. And that's sort of been the tradition in the past.

But the evidence is suggesting that kids really should be restrained from drinking before they're 18 because there's a whole lot of problems that might be associated with early uptake.

LUCY CARTER: Professor John Toumbourou says children in regional and rural areas were found to be more likely to abuse alcohol.

JOHN TOUMBOUROU: We know all things being equal that rural kids are living in areas where there are many more alcohol outlets per population, so this partly explains why the rural kids have higher rates of alcohol use.

One thing I'd say is people may ask: well why is it that these alcohol outlets have these influences? And the answer is we really don't know, but there's two theories. One of them is that we think that where there's higher density of alcohol outlets, that competition increases for the outlets to breach the liquor licensing rules. The other theory is we think that what it does is it normalises alcohol use.

LUCY CARTER: Both researchers agree that federal and state governments need to take a close look at capping alcohol outlet numbers.

BOSCO ROWLAND: There's certainly an increase in the number of outlets that's occurred in the last, you know, 10 or so years. It would suggest that maybe we need to cap it or we need to think about capping or maybe there's, we've reached a tipping point, that it's gone a little bit too far.

JOHN TOUMBOUROU: I believe that we do need to regulate the market for alcohol and that we're not doing enough at the moment. I think that we see it as just another legitimate area of business but the reality is that it's really hurting us and it's really hurting our kids.